


It's Sad and it's Sweet and I Knew it Complete When I Wore a Younger Man's Clothes

by GothamOracle



Series: Piano Man [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Character Study, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Plans For The Future, Post-Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Recovery, Rey Skywalker, Sand sand everywhere, musician!Poe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-05
Updated: 2020-03-28
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:21:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23020888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GothamOracle/pseuds/GothamOracle
Summary: After a "successful" summit on Coruscant, General Poe Dameron doesn't return to base. In spite of assurances that he's alright, the newly-returned Rey Skywalker tracks him via beacon to Corellia, where Poe is coming to grips with the end of the war, the loss of Leia and the weight of putting the galaxy back together.
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Rey
Series: Piano Man [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1708480
Comments: 33
Kudos: 92





	1. Chapter One: Rey

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! So, I blame the radio station we were listening to on the car ride home last weekend for this particular bit of inspiration. This is the first fanfic I've written in almost a decade and my first one in this fandom, so I hope you enjoy it. (Also not the last as I have 5 other plot bunnies hopping around atm.)
> 
> Thanks to the Damerey discord for the support and to Damerey_knows for being a FANTASTIC beta-reader!

The Millennium Falcon _hated_ sand. It was a fact that had haunted Rey the entire trip from Tatooine back to Ajan Kloss.  
  
What she had thought would be a few days’ trip to honor her masters and lay their lightsabers to rest had instead become a two month excursion where she’d had the chance to connect with the past. Not her old past, but the past of the name she’d chosen. But the Lars homestead wasn’t a place where she could stay. She’d thought about it several times in the last two months, remaining on the desert planet. It would have been easy. But the more she saw of Tatooine, the more she was reminded of Jakku. And there was something telling her that this wasn’t where she needed to be.  
  
The newly-named Rey Skywalker could hear the sand rattling around in the Falcon's compressors as they entered Ajan Kloss' atmosphere. In the back of her mind, she compiled a list of all the things that she would need to fix once she landed, all the while cursing the three-day sandstorm that had hit the week before. More reasons not to stay on Tatooine.  
  
“BB-8, have they given clearance yet?”  
  
The orange and white astromech had plugged himself into the communications port and had been beeping enthusiastically for the last several minutes with whomever was on the other end of the line. His head spun around so his optical sensor faced her before beeping an affirmative.  
  
“It’s going to be good to be back.” Rey let her head roll, stretching her neck, never once letting go of the controls as they headed for the base. After more than a day in space, and with no copilot, she’d barely left the seat the whole time.  
  
BB-8 rolled around excitedly, letting out a few happy beeps but stopped when he heard a noise from inside one of his compartments.  
  
“Don’t worry, I promised you an oil bath to help with the sand. Just as soon as we land. Don’t want Poe thinking I didn’t take care of you.”  
  
The droid let out a beep and rolled its head around. Of course Rey was taking care of him. Rey was good with droids; it wasn’t her fault that the planet designated Tatooine was full of sand.  
  
Rey just smiled as she brought the Falcon in for a landing among the X-Wings and shuttles that had once been all that stood between the Final Order and the rest of the galaxy. Now, in these days after the war, they were still in use.  
  
From the transmissions she, Finn and Poe had been sending back and forth Rey gleaned that the Resistance forces were being used to root out the remaining pockets of First Order activity. Usually through small strikes by the different squadrons while others worked with representatives of the inner, mid, and outer rim planets to organize a new interplanetary governing body. It was openly acknowledged that the New Republic had had its flaws. The question, now, was what would work in this post-Empire, post-First Order galaxy.  
  
Rey hadn’t given any opinions on the questions in the transmissions she received. There were many people with better qualifications and more knowledge of this area than her. But Finn and Poe were a different story. They’d wanted to come with her to Tatooine, but she knew they were needed here.  
  
Lowering the ramp, Rey was suddenly surrounded by the familiar sights and smells of Ajan Kloss. It was far less busy than she remembered: People walking around instead of running to their ships, a sense of calm in the air instead of the tension so thick you could cut it with a knife. It was almost, but not quite, peaceful. For Rey, who had never really had a place that she could really call 'home', coming back here was the closest thing to it she'd known. It wasn't so much because of the place itself, but the people in it.  
  
BB-8 made a happy loop around her legs as they reached the tarmac, beeping rapidly about all the people he wanted to see and say hi to, primary among them Poe and R2.  
  
"Yes, I'm sure that R2 will want to hear all about our adventure. After all, that's where he met Master Skywalker." Rey couldn't help but smile at the droid's enthusiasm as he started to speed up, eager to get to the base and see his friends. She started following behind, but her attention was diverted as she thought she heard someone calling her.  
  
Looking up, Rey saw a familiar blond figure jogging towards her and BB-8 from the open doors of the hanger. Beaumont Kin’s hand waved at her, stopping when he was sure that he’d gotten her attention. The three met in the middle, BB-8 getting there first and doing a lap around Beaumont as the intelligence officer listened to the droid rattling things off in Binary.  
  
By the time Rey reached them, the droid was regaling Beaumont with the story of how Rey had constructed her lightsaber and the man was listening with rapt attention. The very lightsaber they were discussing was clipped to her belt and swung slightly with every step.  
  
Her approach seemed to break the spell the story had over the historian and he turned to her with a smile. “Rey, welcome back,” he greeted, reaching over and clapping her lightly on the shoulder.  
  
“Thank you, Beau.” Rey’s smile mirrored his. This was what it was like to come home. To come back to people who knew you; who missed you when you were away. “I hope it’s not a problem, coming back unannounced. We couldn’t get a message through after the sandstorm last week.”  
  
“A problem? Are you kidding?” Beaumont chuckled. “You should have heard Chriaar when he got BB-8’s request for clearance. Word’s already starting to spread that you’re back. I’m just the lucky stiff who gets to escort you to Connix.”  
  
Connix. That caught Rey’s attention. It wasn’t surprising, but it made Rey wonder who else was currently on base.  
  
Before she’d left, Poe had officially been named as Leia’s successor and his first order had been to make Finn his second in command. As she had been for Leia, Connix had taken the position as Poe’s right hand; she knew what needed to be done behind the scenes better than almost anyone. Kaydel Ko Connix had been the perfect and only choice for that post.  
  
“Oh, I have a surprise for you,” Beaumont continued, pulling Rey from her thoughts. He’d been talking while she’d been musing, BB-8 filling the silence and keeping things going.  
  
“I’m not sure if I like surprises,” Rey admitted, hesitation showing on her face. “They never turn out well.” Back on Jakku a surprise could have been anything from finding a useful part to discovering that other scavengers raided your camp. During the war it could be anything, up to and including a surprise attack because of bad intel.  
  
“Think you’ll like this one,” he smirked. “I managed to translate some more of the texts from the copies you left me. Still working on the whole thing, but-”  
  
“It’s more than we had before,” she cut him off, quoting his own words from their first translation attempt back at him. “I really appreciate that you kept working on it, Beau. And I can’t wait to take a look.” Okay, she could handle this kind of surprise.  
  
Beaumont grinned at this, happy to see the change in the Jedi’s demeanor. “I’ll bring you over to see it later. But first, Connix. I think if we make her wait any longer Kaydel is likely to march out here herself.”  
  
Beau chuckled and started leading Rey and BB-8 inside the base. It hadn’t changed in the last two months, the only differences were that there were fewer people inside. Like it had been outside, the command center was much calmer than Rey was used to, but it was very obvious that work was still being conducted. However, instead of people planning offensive maneuvers, through the din of conversation, Rey was able to pick out words like “rebuilding”, “diplomacy”, and “organizing”: The Resistance continuing the work of making a better future for the galaxy.  
  
Approaching the command center, it was easy to see why Connix had sent Beaumont to get her. The blond woman, with her hair in the two buns she’d started wearing again after Leia had become one with the Force, was in conversation with three people at once, each partner carrying several different datapads. Oddly, while things here seemed to have changed, that detail remained the same.  
  
Seeing them approach, Connix handed the shortest of the three the datapad she’d been discussing and halted her conversations with a comment of “Let’s pick this up later,” turning her attention instead to the newly-returned Rey and BB-8.  
  
“I’ll find you later and bring by the translations,” Beau promised. He knew that this was something he didn’t have clearance for and headed off to discuss something with another officer.  
  
“Rey, it’s good to see you,” Connix greeted. “Welcome back. You too, BB-8.”  
  
The droid beeped happily and Rey couldn’t help but smile. “Glad to be back. It took a bit longer than either of us were anticipating, but it was worth it.”  
  
Connix nodded, and indicated that they should follow her as she walked towards another console, picking up a different datapad from a table. “I heard a little bit about what you were up to from General Finn, but he wasn’t too specific. I think that he was just hoping that you would find what you were looking for.”  
  
“We did,” Rey assured. “But I have to tell you, I am not looking at returning to Tatooine anytime soon.” Not with the repairs she now needed to do. As Connix dropped the datapad off with another officer, Rey glanced around, not seeing either of the familiar faces she’d been expecting. “Is Finn around?” she asked.  
  
"General Finn said he would be back. He's on a mission checking on some First Order databases for Storm Squadron." It had been a name-in-progress for the former storm troopers after they'd decided that Company 77 carried too much baggage. It seemed that in her absence the name had remained. “He got a lead on one that might have a list of names.” Which had been something that Finn had wanted for every member of Storm Squadron.  
  
"What about Poe?" Rey had been sure that at least he’d be here. Poe and Finn had decided that one of them had to be on base at all times, emergencies notwithstanding.  
  
Connix paused for a moment, seemingly weighing her answer, something that alerted Rey that something was wrong. "That's... a little more complicated. No one knows where he is."  
  
That was more than a bit concerning and BB-8 let out a high pitched whine of worry.  
  
“No, he’s not... We don’t think that someone captured him.” Connix let out a sigh and tried to figure out the right wording, something that might put the droid at ease. “He went on a diplomatic mission to Coruscant, a summit. By all reports it went well. But when the team got back, General Dameron wasn’t with them.”  
  
“What did the team say?” The concern was written on Rey’s face.  
  
“Not much. I would have scattered searchers, but Finn said that he was fine.” Connix had dropped the titles by this point, talking as a friend instead of an officer. “I asked for more details, but he didn’t give them. Just said that Poe would be back and that if we really needed him that he’d be able to contact him.” It was obvious that Connix was not happy with this turn of events.  
  
The orange and white astromech by their feet let out a serious series of beeps which had Rey nodding in agreement.  
  
“He’s right. Poe wouldn’t have gone if he didn’t have a good reason. Whatever he’s working on, it must be important. How long has he been gone?”  
  
“Two weeks. Finn’s been gone for one, so I’ve been holding down the fort. We have some important meetings coming up and...” Connix paused for a moment. “The part that has me more concerned is- Did Poe ever tell you about his dad?”  
  
Rey nodded. He’d mentioned him in passing: lived on Yavin IV where he was a farmer, was a veteran of the last war.  
  
“Well, Kes has been trying to get in touch with him. Nothing serious, but he doesn’t seem to know where Poe is either. I’ve been telling him that Poe’s on a mission, but there’s only so long that he’ll accept that. Given that we’ve started transitioning, he knows Poe isn’t on the front line anymore.”  
  
No, he wasn’t. Poe was now the acknowledged leader, Leia’s chosen successor. And if he was missing...  
  
Connix looked like she was going to say more, but her attention was pulled away as someone rushed up to her and whispered something in her ear. “Rey, I’m sorry. An emergency just popped up. Can we pick this up later? Maybe meet up for morning meal after you’ve had a chance to rest?”  
  
Rey nodded, waving the newly-minted Commander off to whatever crisis had occurred. As she did, she felt metal bouncing against her calf and looked down to see BB-8 nudging her, his head tilted to the side, asking a silent question.  
  
“Of course we will,” she replied, trying to offer her companion some comfort. Looking back at Connix, she thought for a moment. It was possible. It wouldn’t hurt to at least try. “But first, we should try and get some rest. You need an oil soak and a recharge and I need sleep.”  
  
BB didn’t seem very happy with this, but he could not argue, not when he felt his power cells starting to deplete after a day of use with no charging.  
  
“Come on,” she started heading down the corridor towards her assigned quarters. They hadn’t been moved in her absence and the door slid open with a familiar whoosh. BB-8 immediately headed for his charging station, while Rey took a moment to look around the familiar room.  
  
Everything was as she’d left it, save one small detail. Sitting atop the bed was a miniature holo-projector and a familiar looking tracking beacon, which was active.  
  
Rey approached, her head tilted to the side as she held the projector in her hand and activated it. Instantly an image of Finn appeared. He looked the same as he had in his transmissions while she was on Tatooine, but generally people didn’t change that much in two months.  
  
The smaller version of Finn stood back to full height, his whole person glowing blue, as he started talking.  
  
“Hey Rey. If you’re seeing this, then I guess you got back before I did. Your last message hinted you might be back sooner than later, so I figured I’d leave this just in case,” the small Finn said. “I’m heading out with Storm Squadron soon, we got a lead on another First Order database that might have some answers. But that means I’m heading off base and this,” he held up the beacon, “needed to be somewhere safe.”  
  
The holo ran his hand over his hair and sighed. “Poe’s gone off on his own and he sent this back with a member of his team. I’m worried, but he contacted me and said he was fine and that he’d be back. Didn’t say why or what he was doing. I told him if he wasn’t back in two weeks that I’d be coming after him. That was a week ago.” It was clear that Finn was concerned. “With any luck, it won't be necessary and you won't even see this message because I'll be back and so will he. And hopefully so will you. See you soon!” With that the Holo-Finn waved and the recording cut off.  
  
Rey picked up the homing beacon, looking it over. Two weeks. Finn had said he had given Poe two weeks before he went after him. And from what she’d been told, those two weeks were now up.  
  
Hearing that Poe had just up and left on some kind of mission wouldn’t have been so concerning if this was a year ago. But with the war over…  
  
Rey closed her eyes, reaching out to the Force, looking for the familiar warmth she associated with Poe Dameron but instead she just got a confusing jumble.  
  
Glancing down at the beacon again, she closed her hand around it and put it on the table next to the bed. Tomorrow, after she and BB-8 had recovered, she’d talk to Connix about borrowing a ship.  
  
Wherever Poe was, it was time he came home.


	2. Chapter Two: Poe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In a dive bar without a name on a side street on Corellia, a man with a guitar tries to forget about life for a while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to give a HUGE thank you to damerey_knows, my awesome betareader! This one was really long and I can't thank her enough! 
> 
> We have added one more chapter to the fic-count, so expect an epilogue in a few days. :)

Poe Dameron could not have foreseen this situation. It might even have been comical under other circumstances. Being here, in this place at this time doing… _this_. Things had been going well, or at least that was what everyone had told him. But at the end of the day, he still found himself here, the last place he thought he would be.  
  
The ‘here’ in question was a dive bar on a rundown Coronet City side street on Corellia. It didn’t have a name and you could only find it if you already knew it was there. It was the kind of place Poe had frequented during his days with Zorii and the spice runners, meeting contacts and making shady deals in corners where the shadows were the deepest. In places like these, the only time people paid attention to you was when they were looking for you specifically. There was an unspoken agreement of anonymity and when that agreement broke brawls would break out.  
  
Poe had been on Corellia for the better part of a week; he’d been more or less AWOL from the Resistance for two. He’d broken off from his team - or rather his bodyguards - after the summit on Coruscant and sent them back to base. He was a General, they weren’t; it hadn’t been difficult ordering them to go, even if one or two of them had tried to argue. Poe wasn’t one who particularly liked pulling rank, but after Coruscant…  
  
Closing his eyes, Poe let out a breath and forced himself to focus on the guitar in his hands, letting the familiar feel of the strings under his fingers take away the tension. It was something that had worked when he was a kid; now, maybe not so much. But it had given him a break. Making music was good, it was familiar, and it was something he could get lost in. Something that couldn’t hurt anyone. And for a moment he could forget the war; forget about Snap’s death; forget the crushing weight on his chest that had been with him for the last two weeks.  
  
For a moment, he wasn’t on a pallet that doubled as a piss-poor stage in a bar where no one paid any attention to him. Instead, he was on the second floor of his parents’ home and things were calm and peaceful. He didn’t want to think about Coruscant or the summit or any of it. Getting away from all of this had been the reason that he’d come here in the first place.  
  
 _‘The reason you ran,_ ’ a voice in the back of his chided, a voice that sounded far too much like Leia Organa. It hurt like a shot from a blaster.  
  
He didn’t run. Poe Dameron had never run from a fight in his life. More often than not, that tendency had gotten him in deep water with his superior officers. But he was good at what he did and he did his damndest to make sure that his people pulled through. He was a pilot, a soldier and he trusted his team and his instincts to make sure the mission was completed.  
  
But now he had no commanding officers.  
  
He was used to the fight. When he could jump in his X-Wing and blow stuff up. When that was how you won the day, you lived by your wits and by the comradery of your squad. Whether he was demoted or the Commander of Black Squadron, the end goal was beating the enemy. Things were black and white. Even when they weren't you had a goal in mind and whatever it took to get to that goal you did. You had to. What came after had seemed so far away for such a long time - much to the disappointment of every Resistance member.  
  
That was before. When things were harder, but in many ways simpler. He hadn’t been a General then and they still had Leia…  
  
Poe didn’t miss the war. The day they’d won and the First Order had fallen was one of the happiest of his life. It hadn’t just been elation, it had been relief, hope and the knowledge that everything they’d done had paid off. They hadn’t gone off quietly into the night. But the celebration couldn’t last, didn’t last. They mourned their lost and dead, set pyres to help their souls find their way to the final rest and finally, _finally_ found the time to be, to slow down.  
  
Most of them did, anyway.  
  
Poe paused as the song came to an end. He’d first wandered into this bar three nights ago, four days into his stay on Corellia and the guitar had just been sitting in the corner. After a bit too much to drink he’d picked it up, no one had stopped him so he’d started playing. Last night he sang. Tonight he didn’t feel like it. He pulled the chords of an old song his father had taught him and started strumming again. He just wanted to play tonight and forget everything that happened the last two weeks. He wanted to let the music take him away and ignore the fact that he was in so far over his head..  
  
The fighting was over, but it had left a galaxy full of problems in its wake. Stolen children who had been turned into Stormtroopers. Populations of destroyed planets left as refugees. Planets the First Order had occupied, ruined or pillaged and left, not caring about the chaos they’d left behind. There were pockets of First Order activity still being rooted out, two standard months hadn’t been long enough to find them all.  
  
The New Republic didn’t exist anymore and there was a power vacuum. The galaxy had been looking for someone to turn to, someone they could trust to help guide them. The Rebellion had been that group in the aftermath of the last war, under Leia’s watchful eye. Now the galaxy was looking to the Resistance. But Leia was gone.  
  
It shouldn’t have ended this way! She deserved better. There was so much more she had to do, so much she had to see. Leia had survived so much sadness and tragedy over the course of her life, and she’d lost hers so close to the end of what she’d fought so hard for. And worse, he hadn’t been there for her when it happened. He’d been off in following leads on the Sith dagger and getting Chewie back and following Rey and Leia had been dying. He’d lost a mother all over again.  
  
She had been a pillar to all of them. She’d been a friend, a leader and one of the fiercest women that Poe had ever had the pleasure to know. But more than that, she’d been his mentor and Poe _desperately_ wished he’d had more time with her. More time to listen to her, learn from her. Leia had seen something in him, something that his superiors in the New Republic Defense Fleet hadn’t. She’d trusted him even with his fuckups and mistakes and had believed in him, even when he hadn’t himself.  
  
Everyone had known she was grooming him for leadership, but it had happened too quickly. He hadn’t felt ready! Her passing left hole that he knew that he couldn’t fill. He’d managed well enough before the final battle, taking Lando’s advice, taking the reins, promoting Finn because he couldn’t do it alone. But this wasn’t a dogfight against an enemy. This was different.  
  
Poe changed the key as he tried _not_ to think about the summit. He tried to get lost in the song but thoughts kept threatening to overwhelm him. While he hadn’t felt ready for leadership those last few days of the war, they’d pulled through together. But for what came after, ‘the real work’? The terror came in knowing just how fully and completely unprepared he was. And surrounded by the representatives of fifty-or-so worlds who had shown up for the summit?  
  
They each had held so much expectation in their eyes. They all had ideas of what this should be and what the Resistance should do now. They each had their own agendas, their own needs and wants. They wanted stability, the end of the remaining First Order vestiges, trade agreements, their people safe. They wanted plans and assurances of how this wouldn’t happen again after the Empire and the First Order and some worried that the Resistance having a continued armed force would lead to another uprising and they’d be right back where they started. They had looked at him like he held all the answers and he didn’t!  
  
Poe wasn’t a politician. He was a general, a wartime general whose position had been made permanent by choice of his people. He was a soldier, a pilot. He could talk and strategize and make battle plans but this was different, foreign.  
  
He’d tried to get someone else to cover this mission; D’Acy, who was coordinating the hunting down of the First Order vestiges or Connix. Connix, who had been Leia’s left hand while he’d been her right. Connix who had been acting as Leia’s aide-de-camp in addition to her controller duties. Either of them would have been better for this than he was. Either one of them would be able to handle it. But he and Finn were in command and Finn was already in the field on another mission. It was Poe’s responsibility.  
  
Poe didn’t know how to do this. Put him in an X-wing and he’d happily hunt down the remains of the First Order. He didn’t have the training or the experience to enact policies or broker economic deals. Leia had always seemed to know what she was doing. She’d been a senator since she was fourteen years old, had been trained in diplomacy and theory and how to talk to people without pissing them off since birth!  
  
Connix prepared him for the meetings as best she could since she couldn’t go with him (someone had to hold down the fort), but more than once he’d had to sit there listening to the different representatives squabble with one another about slights that had happened generations before he was born! Those things weren’t important anymore. They couldn’t be!  
  
The fake niceness of the representatives that clearly hated one another grated on him. The fake smiles, the statements everyone knew were just lip service, everyone looking out for their own individual agendas when there was something greater on the line. It made him want to scream.  
  
On the sixth day, the representative from Naboo had brought up trade negotiations which led to another fight.. Poe had snapped and yelled at the Queen’s representative and the others. There were more pressing matters: There were planets in the outer rim that had been excluded for decades, child slavery on Jakku, and populations that needed to be taken care of because they had nothing now that the First Order had destroyed their lives!  
  
How had Leia done this?  
  
The pressure on his chest intensified momentarily and he froze, screwing his eyes shut. He reminded himself that he needed to breathe, the way Doctor Kolonia had shown him after he was tortured on _The Finalizer_. The tightness was usually accompanied by nightmares: Ren’s face, the pain, feeling like his mind was being ripped apart, the failed bombing mission, Snap, Muran. And then suddenly, things changed. For a second, Poe felt warm. It was familiar, like a day back home when the sun was out before the inevitable afternoon storm.  
  
 _How_ had Leia done this?!  
  
He let out a breath and started strumming the instrument again, putting all that emotion into the music, just to get all of it out of his head. Sometimes it was hard to believe it had only been two months since Exegol. Especially when it felt like it had been years.  
  
Poe hit the bridge and the key modulated. He winced as he heard the note flatten slightly, he hadn’t checked the strings before he’d started this song. That was when he heard the whistling. It took Poe a moment to realize what it was, but someone, or something, was humming along with the song… No. Not humming. That was beeping. Poe's eyes widened in surprise.  
  
"BB?"  
  
He couldn't be seeing this right. There was no way his droid was in front of him chirping away happily in a dive bar on Corellia. But when he blinked again the droid was still there, worriedly whining, trying to figure out what was wrong and why his master's life signs had suddenly fluctuated.  
  
The next second Poe was moving, hurriedly putting down the instrument and stepping off the small pallet-stage. Kneeling down, he leaned his head against BB-8's feeling not just the warmth from earlier, but like a small part of him had just come back.  
  
"No buddy, everything's fine. I'm fine. Just surprised." Poe leaned back, a smile on his face for the first time in what felt like weeks as his droid's photoreceptor seemed to widen as the questions flowed again. "No; a good surprise. I missed you, buddy. I can't believe you're here!"  
  
BB-8 started beeping and chirping, relaying things about the trip to Tatooine and Force ghosts and lightsabers and sand at such a rapid pace that Poe couldn't keep up.  
  
"Woah, buddy- Buddy, slow down," he chided gently, the droid ducked his head as if to say he was sorry, which caused his master to chuckle. "I wanna hear everything, but how are you here? You're supposed to be on Tatooine looking after-"  
  
BB-8 cut his master off, turning his head towards back. Poe's eyes followed the droid's gaze and froze. The bar was full, but he could still make out a slender figure at a table in the back, a cloak shielding her from the cold Corellian night.  
  
"Sunshine…” The word passed his lips barely loud enough to be heard as he rose to his feet. It was her.  
  
He'd know her anywhere. He realized belatedly that the warmth he’d been feeling the last few minutes was the same warmth he felt whenever she was around, like she was single-handedly chasing away the cold and the dark. He hadn’t told her any of this, hadn’t called her the name he used in his head. But when she was close, the galaxy was brighter, _his_ galaxy was brighter. She was light and hope… But she’d left.  
  
And she was here. Now. Like BB-8, in a dive bar on Corellia, with two drinks sitting in front of her like she was expecting someone to walk over and sit down.  
  
She was meeting someone. Their being here at the same time was a coincidence, a twist of fate in the galaxy.  
  
Poe looked away, almost able to feel her eyes on him. He turned to look back at BB-8 to try and get more information about what the hell was going on, but the droid had moved. Poe turned around just in time to feel his astromech push gently against the side of his calf.  
  
“BB, what-”  
  
He didn’t have time to finish the sentence before his droid repeated the action a bit harder, this time beeping at him that he needed to walk now, that standing here was not accomplishing anything and that BB-8 had a mission to accomplish. And apparently that mission could only be completed if his master started walking.  
  
The only thing Poe could think as he started moving was that all the time BB-8 had spent with Rey (and possibly with R2-D2 given the vocabulary he’d started accumulating) had turned his droid into a little traitor. It had been very obvious early on that BB-8 had a soft spot for Rey, who he referred to as ‘Designation: Jedi Hero’. But given how Poe had described her and what BB-8 had seen by her side… It was an issue for later. He’d have to have a talk with his astromech about this at some point.  
  
BB stopped pushing him when Poe reached the table in the back. The one with the two drinks on it. The one that the cloaked figure of Rey was currently occupying. Poe glanced down at his droid before looking at the drinks on the table. One was in front of Rey, the other was by the empty seat and... it looked like a Bespin Fizz? It wasn’t the usual type of drink for this place, but it was the kind of drink that Poe liked. He’d been managing the last few days on Tatooine Sunrises, which the bartender had made for him while giving him odd looks. Poe didn’t want to think how Rey had managed to get the bartender to make something like this.  
  
As Poe finally sat down, something that made BB-8 let out a pleased whine as he moved to sit between them, Rey removed her hood, letting it fall back against her shoulders. Even in the low light of the bar, Poe could tell that she’d spent a lot of time in the sun on Tatooine. The freckles that dotted her face were much more pronounced now, more like how they had been when he’d first met her, only days after she’d left Jakku.  
  
“I didn’t know you could play,” she started, offering him a smile as a greeting. “You’re good.”  
  
“Not a lot of call for it in the middle of a war,” he replied, giving her a noncommittal shrug. Under other circumstances, this would have been a time to turn on the charm, and if this was two years ago, he might have. But something in him was telling him to trust his instincts and if being bullied into a chair by his own droid wasn’t questionable enough…  
  
“I think if you’d played it might have eased some of the tension on base. Pava mentioned a few times that you could sing.”  
  
Rey paused, taking a sip of whatever drink was in front of her. Poe didn’t move, he could hear BB-8 beeping a question under the table, but he kept his eyes on Rey. He didn’t touch the drink in front of him, didn’t relax in the chair the way someone meeting an old friend might.  
  
“What are you doing here, Rey?” he asked after a moment, his usually optimistic tone of voice absent. He suddenly felt weary, tired, like everything the last few weeks was physically catching up with him in this one moment. “Aren’t the two of you supposed to be on Tatooine doing…”  
  
He trailed off, he didn’t know how to end the sentence. When Rey had announced that she had to go to Tatooine, the first words out of his mouth had been that they’d go with her. Instead it had been made clear, though not by her, that this was something she had to do by herself. It had taken a near-argument for Rey to have BB-8 accompany her, but Poe wasn’t about to let her go alone.  
  
Rey hadn’t told him what she was doing on Tatooine. She had told Finn; Finn who had been the one to explain that she had to go on her own, but Poe never got a why. Not a clear why, anyway. The only information he’d gotten from his best friend had been a mistake, something that when Finn realized it, had caused him to clam up. “You need to talk to Rey, it’s not my story,” the former Stormtrooper had said holding up his hands defensively. But from that slip up, Poe had a theory, which just made him wonder even more what she was doing here now.  
  
“You didn’t get my last transmission?” Rey sounded surprised by this and Poe just raised an eyebrow. It seemed to give Rey the answer she needed and he could have sworn she mumbled something that sounded like “Damn sand.”  
  
He’d been busy for the last month. They all had. Worse, the messages Rey had been sending back were - at best - vague when they got through and completely garbled when they didn’t. The last one he’d gotten had been three and a half weeks ago in the midst of his prep with Connix and even that had only been a half message.  
  
Poe was quiet waiting for Rey to say something, but she didn’t. She didn’t say anything, seemingly waiting. For what? For him to do it? The silence started getting awkward and he took pity on both of them and broke it for her.  
  
"So, did you find them?"  
  
Rey tilted her head to the side. "Find who?"  
  
"Your family." Poe paused, studying her expression carefully. She blinked a few times as if the meaning of the words were taking some time to decode in her head.  
  
"You left. You went alone,” he continued when it looked like she wasn’t going to answer.  
  
"I needed to," she replied, lamely.  
  
Poe could feel the emotions rising in his chest. The worry he’d been holding, the concern he had that she would disappear into another world of sand. That she would find whatever she was looking for and it wouldn’t… it wouldn’t include him. "You left and took longer than you said you would."  
  
"I..." she faltered and looked down at the table. Poe tried to read her body language, wondered for a moment if she was going to argue the fact with him, but she didn’t. "I promised I’d be back. I just didn't realize how long it would take. How long I was going to need for clarity."  
  
"Clarity?" He could feel his forehead furrow. Whatever he’d been expecting this hadn’t been it. Clarity? What kind of clarity could be found on a place like Tatooine?  
  
Under the table, he heard BB-8 let out a worried whine and Rey looked down at him, taking a moment to play with the droid’s antenna, smiling down at him as if in a thank you. BB was trying to comfort her. But why? He was missing something; something important.  
  
"There are a lot of things to work through," she replied, still not looking at him, "when you've come back from the dead."  
  
Her words hung in the air and Poe felt as if the floor had fallen out from beneath his feet. She hadn’t just said that. She couldn’t have just said that. She was here, sitting in front of him, talking to him. His head raced and mentally he begged her to say something, _anything_ that would make what she just said make sense. His heart pounded against his ribs as he remembered that one moment - at the end of the battle as the First Order ships had started to fall, as everyone had started celebrating in their cockpits - he’d felt an overwhelming chill like clouds had blocked all warmth from the sun. He hadn’t been able to place it, hadn’t had time.  
  
And then Finn had yelled through the Comms that she was alive. Poe remembered the relief that had flooded through him when he heard. But he’d thought it was just a confirmation, Finn confirming that she was alright after everything they’d just done. The answer felt like it was slapping him in the face. Finn had known. His best friend had finally told him that he was Force sensitive. Finn had felt Rey die too, but he’d understood. The hushed conversations, whispering in corners, the urgent back and forths that stopped the moment Poe walked into the room- Finn knew. He knew about this and whatever else had happened down on the planet’s surface.  
  
What else _had_ happened down on that planet?! Finn had let slip that she’d found out who she really was, but the tone he’d used in giving the information had been all wrong. Especially for someone like Rey who had been looking for those answers all her life!  
  
“Rey…” Poe dropped heavily into the chair opposite Rey. He could only imagine the look on his face as she finally looked up at him.  
  
“Defeating Palpatine took everything,” her words were quiet but firm, like she was completely sure of what she’d done, “even with all the Jedi behind me. I remember thinking that if all of you were safe, if the Sith were defeated, it was worth it. Maybe Master Skywalker would be right. Both Jedi and Sith would be over...”  
  
And she would be gone, Poe’s mind filled in the blank. This might have happened two months ago, but that didn’t stop him from feeling a surge of emptiness at the idea. But she was here. She was in front of him, she hadn’t… He didn’t understand. How had-  
  
“I was gone. Then I wasn’t. And I saw Ben.”  
  
“You mean Ren.” What the hell had Ren been doing there? If Emperor Palpatine was Ren’s master, of course he’d be there. He’d have been present to see the end of it all and the victory of the First Order. But no one had seen Ren or his TIE fighter during the battle!  
  
“No. I mean Ben,” she clarified. “I don’t know how it happened, Force knows I didn’t do it. But he… he turned back to the Light. Leia, she…” Rey stopped there and shook her head. She wasn’t ready to speak of her Master, not yet. “He fought with me, tried to stand against his Master. And after… he traded his life for mine.”  
  
She sounded, detached. It wasn’t something that Poe was used to hearing from Rey. But Ren had been a monster! He’d destroyed civilizations, killed so many that it couldn’t be counted. He’d tortured both of them, he couldn’t be hearing this right.  
  
"So what? The Force just let him back in? After everything he did?!” He didn’t mean for it to sound accusatory but there was disbelief in his tone. After everything Ren had done, how did that happen? Did the Force just accept someone back from the abyss? It put him on edge.  
  
"No, nothing like that. Turning from the Dark doesn’t redeem you, it might be a step in a journey, but only the first,” she replied, meeting his eyes. They were almost serene and that calmed his nerves slightly. It was like she’d made peace with this. Like she’s found… ‘ _Clarity,_ ’ his mind supplied, just like she’d said. “I just know he was Ben when he died. He's gone and I'm here. I don't really remember it. It was... peaceful. But one moment I was gone and then I woke up."  
  
He wanted to do something, take her hand from across the table, but Rey had wrapped both of hers around the glass in front of her. BB-8 was still by her leg, the droid’s head was leaning against her knee. The way she spoke about it, the detachment, it was something Poe recognized. He’d heard it enough from himself when he’d been ordered to speak with Dr. Toln, the base counselor, after _The Finalizer_ . He hadn’t taken it seriously, he’d just wanted to get back in the air and avoid it. He was paying for that now.  
  
Rey offered him a small smile that didn’t reach her eyes before reaching for her glass again and taking another sip. The smile, or lack thereof, was enough for Poe to mentally slap himself for being such an ass.  
  
“I’m…” He let out a breath and steeled himself. “I’m glad you told me.” It came out a bit more awkwardly than he had intended, a bit more stilted. But he meant it. “I wish I’d known earlier. You shouldn’t have had to go through that on your own.”  
  
“I wasn’t alone,” she smiled down at BB-8, who let out a happy trill at being acknowledged by his second favorite - Poe hoped at least - person. “It’s actually part of the reason I stayed so long.”  
  
Poe shot her a quizzical look across the table.  
  
“You thought that I’d gone to find my family,” Rey prompted.  
  
“Yeah,” Poe confirmed. He ran a hand through his curls, looking to the side, not wanting to meet her eyes. “Finn accidentally let it slip that you’d found the answers to your past. I figured you’d be jumping to go and find them.”  
  
The moment he mentioned her past, Rey stiffened and took a breath, but it seemed to pass quickly.  
  
“Finn didn’t mean to tell me,” he added quickly. “The moment he realized I didn’t know he wouldn’t say anymore. He didn’t mean to-”  
  
“I did find where I come from. But it doesn’t matter. I don’t want it.” Her words were quiet and he looked back at her. Whatever she’d found, Poe could tell it wasn’t good. She’d wanted to know who she was, why her parents had left her for so long. To give that up, when she had the information? He had more questions but he didn’t want to push her. If she was opening up, then he was going to let her do it at her own pace.  
  
“I didn’t go to Tatooine to find my family. But we found one anyway.” She smiled fondly. “I spent much of the time there listening.”  
  
"Listening to who?" She had implied that it had just been her and BB-8 out there. Tatooine was desolate, it wasn't much better than Jakku if he was being honest. If she'd been by herself like she said, who would she be listening to?  
  
"Anakin about mistakes of the past. Obi-Wan about balance. Master Skywalker about the roads not taken. And Leia about..." she trailed off for a moment. "And Leia about a lot of things."  
  
The Skywalkers. The realization snapped into place and it all made sense. The trip, needing to do it herself, the fact that - as he glanced down to her hip - she had a different lightsaber with her. She’d gone to honor and connect, to find her balance. Where she could learn about the past, get perspective as the last of the Jedi, where she could connect with Luke… where she could connect with Leia.  
  
“She’s so proud of you.” The words cut through Poe’s thoughts and he realized that Rey was watching him.  
  
“What?”  
  
“Leia,” Rey smiled. “She’s been watching. She’s extremely proud of you. But didn’t want me to tell you because she thought you might get… how did she put it? You ‘might not be able to take off with all that ego in the cockpit.’”  
  
That got him. In the midst of everything that they’d been discussing, that line got him. Poe could hear the words in Leia’s voice and he let out a low laugh that he hadn’t been expecting. It felt good, hurt a little bit. He missed Leia so much.  
  
“Somehow I don’t think she’d keep that assessment if she’d heard me at the summit two weeks ago.” He shook his head and let out a sigh, feeling himself regrounding a bit. “This was the part that she’d been looking forward to the most. The rebuilding. The ‘what came next,’ because that meant that we’d won and it was over.”  
  
“Connix mentioned you’d been on Coruscant.”  
  
That got his attention. She hadn’t mentioned that she’d been talking to Connix. Did that mean she’d been back on base?  
  
“I got back three days ago. Finn was off on a mission and you weren’t there. Connix said that you hadn’t come back. I got worried,” she explained. Rey must have seen the question in his eyes because she pulled back the cloak sleeve, revealing the beacon on her wrist; its twin was sitting in the pocket of his jacket.  
  
Poe’s face softened. She’d come after him.  
  
“Didn’t mean to worry anyone.” Especially not her. “Just needed to get away for a bit.”  
  
Rey nodded. After what she’d told him, he assumed that she understood. He finally reached for the drink in front of him - which now it was clear _had_ been for him - and took a sip. It was sweet on his tongue, just the way he liked it.  
  
“Did something happen?” Tilting her head to the side, some of Rey’s hair fell over her left shoulder. “Connix seemed to think that the summit went well enough.”  
  
“Kaydel and I clearly have a different definition of ‘well enough,’” Poe frowned and took a longer swig of the drink. He has a sinking feeling that someone gave a falsified report to Connix if she was using phrases like that.  
  
Rey’s eyes urged him to keep going, the low light of the bar throwing shadows on her face. Poe sighed and frowned, part of him knowing that he should. Even though he didn’t really want to.  
  
“I _may_ have screamed at the representatives. I may have told them they were behaving like squabbling children and that I knew kids that could work together better and to cut the shit.” He ducked his head, running a hand through his hair. What he wasn’t expecting was a laugh to come from the other end of the table.  
  
Rey was trying to be polite about it and was covering her mouth, but it didn’t help. She was laughing at him.  
  
“Oh _thanks_ . I tell you how badly I screwed up and you think it’s funny.”  
  
“I’m sorry.” She held up a hand placatingly, clearly trying to make peace while choking back her laughter. “But… but it is.”  
  
“Fine, see if I share anything like this with you again,” he frowned, forehead furrowing.  
  
“Poe,” she took a deep breath, calming and ending the giggles. “I don’t think you’ve messed up at all.”  
  
He’d just told her that he’d yelled at the representatives they were supposed to be working with and had taken them to task in a very undiplomatic way. He wasn’t a politician! How could this be anything but?! She seemed to pick up on his skepticism, which probably had less to do with the Force than it did the look on his face.  
  
“You don’t see it.” It was a statement not a question.  
  
He didn’t have any idea what she was talking about. What didn’t he see?! The way they’d been looking at him to solve all their problems? The way that he was in over his head? He knew all of this already! He could feel the tightness in his chest starting to grow as he imagined the whole thing falling apart because he wasn’t… wasn’t good enough to do what Leia would have! What wasn’t he seeing?!  
  
“You sound just like her,” Rey smiled again and the sun shone.  
  
“Like her?” Her who?  
  
“Poe, how many people do we know that could take an entire room to task with a few well placed words. Yelling and cursing aside?”  
  
Leia. Rey meant Leia. He was an idiot. He should have put it together instantly. But she was wrong.  
  
“I feel like I’m drowning here, Rey,” he confided. “I don’t have Leia’s training, or her gift for words or compromise. I’m not a diplomat, I’m a pilot. I can’t even go a day without pissing someone off. All I want to do is cut through all this red tape and get something done! A plan. Something to keep the First Order offshoots from trying something. But the entire summit all the representatives wanted to talk about trade agreements and restrictions on imports. We weren’t even talking about those things.”  
  
He felt raw, vulnerable admitting these things aloud. If it were anyone else he wouldn’t have said anything, the possible exceptions being Finn or Connix, but this was Rey. He again felt the weight of the summit on his shoulders, the tiredness returning, his shoulders tensing in response.  
  
“You’re not alone in this, you don’t have to be and you shouldn’t be.” The words were exactly what he’d wanted to hear, but…  
  
“You left,” he repeated his words from earlier without the same bitterness. “Finn is heading a different set of priorities. Connix is doing day-to-day-”  
  
“I’m here now,” Rey cut him off, her hand sitting on the table. She heard an indignant beep from under the table. “Sorry BB. _We’re_ here now. And we’re not going anywhere.” She tried to assure him.  
  
“What about the Jedi?” he asked after a moment.  
  
“I’m still working that out,” she admitted. “I’m not sure what I want to do. Like you said, I don’t feel prepared or ready or that I know what I’m doing.”  
  
“You could have fooled me.”  
  
“I could say the same about you,” she replied, looking down. She had ducked her head at his comment and the shadows kept him from seeing her features. “On Tatooine, Leia reminded me that she and Luke weren't always the people we knew; that who they were when we knew them was where they… they ended,” Rey faltered a bit on the last part. Poe didn’t need the Force to know she was suffering from their loss, just like he was.  
  
“We all know the story,” Poe sighed, taking another swig of his drink, finishing it this time. ”Luke Skywalker grew up on a farm. Leia was a princess and they became two of the greatest leaders of a generation. This is a bit different, Rey.”  
  
“Is it?” she asked rhetorically and he frowned. “They started here like we are. A galaxy in shambles. No Jedi Order to speak of. The remains of an enemy being brought to justice. It’s so similar it’s eerie. Leia told me that what came next was a choice, and that I- That we needed to choose what we were going to do with this new world we helped free, what we wanted."  
  
He could see the familiar weight of decision on her face. He’d seen it too often in the mirror to not recognize it. He might have been struggling with what he was going to do with his lack of diplomacy, lack of experience and his general frustration. But they both had the weight of generations on their shoulders. His was the future. Hers was the future and the past. Whatever she decided would be the fate of the Jedi and the Order itself. Both important, both monumental.  
  
“I’ve thought about it for weeks, taking what Leia said to heart and I don’t know what my choices are going to be, not yet. But I know what I want. I want time. I want to fix things. I want…” she paused, looking back up at him. “Rey of Jakku, the scavenger, she didn’t really live. She never had the opportunity. But Rey Skywalker... she has her whole life to live ahead of her with plenty of time to decide. That’s what I want."  
  
She offered him a small smile, but it was followed by a pregnant pause. Poe didn't know what to say to that. She was leaving her past behind? Or adding to it. Skywalker fit her, she’d earned it. When she said she’d found a family out in the wilds of Tatooine, this was what she’d meant. She’d finally accepted the family that she’d had here all along, all of them - and him… The idea of starting over- It was easier for someone like her, someone who shone like she did. She could build a life from here. But him... he had a full dossier of his past.   
  
He was so caught up in his thoughts and didn’t realize she was talking.  
  
“Sorry?”  
  
Rey tilted her head to the side, the rest of her drink long forgotten in front of her, ice melting with each passing moment. "I asked if you knew what you wanted," she asked.  
  
What did he want? It was a weighty question. What was what he wanted and what was his duty as General? Were they the same? He was quiet for a few moments, trying to grasp which parts of him were the job and which parts of it were just him.  
  
"I wanted the First Order gone," he replied finally.  
  
"No." Her reply caused him to look up, surprised.  
  
"If you're trying to tell me that I didn't want that, everything I've done to get here says otherwise."  
  
"Well, yes, you're right," Rey said, gently. "But that's what Poe Dameron wanted."  
  
"Uh... yeah."  
  
"No," she shook her head. "That's what Poe Dameron, former spice runner, Resistance pilot, leader of Black Squadron wanted. Just like I’m not Rey of Jakku anymore, that's not who you are anymore either."  
  
Poe chuckled, a skeptical look in his eyes. "Okay, who am I then?"  
  
"You're Poe Dameron, General, Leader of the Resistance, war hero." He frowned a bit as she said it. It reminded him of the rebuilding they had ahead of them. But after all the years of fighting to get here...  
  
"Poe," she reached across the table and smiled gently, giving his hand a squeeze. "What does that Poe Dameron want?"  
  
He looked up at her, his features softening. Poe knew she was right, he wasn't the same. There was no way he could be. He'd been so focused on a single goal like all the others for such a long time, the idea that it was over and having to find his place again in the aftermath; it was overwhelming.  
  
What did he want? The question was overwhelming too. After the pace of war, what was it he wanted? Not in the long term. It could be in the immediate…  
  
"So?" she prompted after a few moments.  
  
"I..." he faltered, his eyes glancing from her face to their hands, still on the table. From the moment he'd met her, he'd known that she would change everything. She'd been a constant, a light... He came back to himself knowing what the answer was. "Sunshine," he said with a nod. "That's what I want, sunshine."  
  
Rey's face slowly lit up. She gave his hand a squeeze again and let go, standing up from the table. "Alright," she said firmly.  
  
Poe blinked for a moment. "Sorry?" He was saying that a lot today. He was sure she had no idea the power she had to throw him off his game.  
  
"I said alright," she smiled again. She held out her hand for him to take. "If that's what you want, then we'll find it together."  
  
Poe stared at Rey momentarily, mouth slightly agape. She didn’t know what he’d meant. She couldn’t. He hadn’t told her. So she had no idea what she’d just agreed to. But… she was agreeing to help him find what he wanted. She’d already said she’d be with him - with the Resistance, he tried to mentally correct himself but failed - to help with the rest of the galaxy too.  
  
Poe reached forward and took Rey’s hand, again feeling that warmth spread through him as skin touched skin. He gave her hand a squeeze and smiled. “Together.”


	3. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey and Poe start heading back to base to continue the rebuilding with the Resistance, but before they get there, Rey decides there is one last unexpected stop that they need to make.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so ends this fic ends. I hope you have enjoyed it! I've had a lot of fun writing it! I will see you in the next fic! (And there MAY be some more of this one eventually. :P)
> 
> HUGE thanks to damerey_knows, my amazing betareader. 
> 
> If you would like to listen to the song that inspired this chapter and it was written to, the Boyce Avenue version of The House That Built Me, please see the link below:  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vryuat7Crbs

Poe hadn't meant to fall asleep, but the rocking of the ship and the fact that Rey was in control were enough to put his mind at ease for the first time in months. He'd taken one of the bunks in the back while she was in the cockpit and had spent the first hour staring at the ceiling.  
  
The promise she'd made in the bar... Rey didn't know the significance of what she'd promised. She couldn't. He hadn't told her, and laying something like that on someone after a conversation like the one they'd had? He knew it would be a lot and he didn't feel ready for that. The fact that those words had come out of his mouth? He'd barely admitted it to himself.  
  
He managed to dream and for the first time in two months, dreams that weren't nightmares. He wasn't screaming for Muran to eject or being tortured by Ren or watching in horror as Snap was shot out of the sky or stricken with terror realizing that his best friend and Sunshine were still down on Exegol as the ships started falling. Instead the dream was warm, inviting, and he felt a peace that he thought he'd lost to the war. But like all dreams, it came to an end.  
  
Poe woke to Rey standing over him, gently shaking his shoulder. The ship wasn't moving anymore and he realized they must have landed, which meant they were back on base. Sitting up, he rubbed his eyes and ran a hand through his messy curls. "How long was I out?"  
  
"Fourteen hours," she replied with a small smile.  
  
Poe frowned. "You should have gotten me up. I would have relieved you."  
  
Rey just shook her head. "Didn't want to. BB-8 and I checked on you a few times. You needed the sleep."  
  
He didn't argue. If he did, she would just tell him to stop being stubborn, which was the pot calling the kettle black.  
  
"It's been a while since I got a full night," he admitted, reaching for his jacket, which has been laid at the end of the bed. The jacket, which had his rank designation pinned to it, was a stark reminder that they still had work to do and it was waiting just outside this ship. He had a job to do. They both did.  
  
"Guess that I should go out there and find Connix," he shook his head, reaching for his boots and slipping them on.  
  
"And if they want to talk about trade agreements?" Rey asked, a knowing smile on her lips.  
  
He sighed and shook his head at that. "Then I guess I - we - get to insist that a government is needed before we can reestablish anything. Something that includes the Outer Rim. And if they don't listen, I've been told that elevated volumes are okay." Poe smiled at that, feeling a bit more like his old self. It wasn't a full smile, but it was a start. And he'd take it.  
  
"Guess we should get going. Lots to do." Rey smiled and followed behind Poe as he started walking through the ship towards the already-open entry ramp where BB-8 was waiting. The droid beeped happily the moment his photoreceptor fell on his master, who leaned down and affectionately scratched the droid's head.  
  
"Yeah, I'm okay, Buddy. Just needed some rest." The assurance soothed the droid's worry and he rolled forward, pumping into Poe's leg affectionately. Poe smiled at BB-8 before looking back up at Rey, straightening himself back up. "Alright. Let's go."  
  
Stepping down the ramp, Poe was hit by the familiar smell of nature and ozone and the sounds of animals muffled by trees. At first he thought he was imagining it, but he hadn't taken five steps before his eyes fell on a familiar house less than a hundred yards away.  
  
This wasn't the base. This wasn't Ajan Kloss. This was... He felt something bloom in his chest, another piece that he thought he'd lost. But why? The question loomed.  
  
He turned to Rey and BB-8, concern, confusion, worry and panic on his face. Had something happened that she hadn't told him about? Why else would they be here? She hadn't said anything on Corellia. "What- Why are we-?"  
  
Rey just smiled, a smile that could chase the clouds away and in an instant the panic subsided but the confusion remained.  
  
"Leia told me on Tatooine that sometimes we need to remember why we're doing this. What it's all for," she started. "I thought the advice was for me. Now I'm thinking it was for someone else."  
  
Leia had always known. As much as he'd wanted nothing but to leave this place in his teens, the longer the war had gone on the more things had been put into perspective; the more he understood his parents. On that rooftop with Zorii on Kijimi he'd said that he had to see the war through to the end, but even at that time when she'd asked him to go with her, Poe had known. He'd known there was only one place that he'd wanted to go at the end of the fighting. The only place he'd wanted to be at the end of it was back here.  
  
"So you brought me home." The words came out quiet, but loud enough for both him and Rey to hear. She'd brought him back to Yavin 4. That was his house up ahead, his dad's house, the one that Kes Dameron had built for Shara Bey.  
  
"I don't have a lot of experience with home, not as a place," Rey admitted. "You and Finn, you're the ones who gave me mine. But I thought if you were going to be able to find the sunshine you wanted - if we were - this was a good place to start." She paused for a moment before she quickly added, "They're still expecting us back, but I told Connix we were going to look at a place to expand since we can't stay on Ajan Kloss forever..."  
  
He was speechless, staring at her with an awe that he would admit later he’d felt more than once for this woman. He wanted to fix or change what she'd said, make sure she had someplace that she viewed as her home. She deserved that. And so much more. But that would be later.  
  
He couldn't get the right string of words to work, and instead he grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze. "Yeah. This is definitely a good place to start." He added 'Sunshine' in his head at the end, but couldn't vocalize that either.  
  
In the distance, he heard the too-familiar screen door of the Dameron home creek open and someone let out a surprised noise as Kes Dameron saw his son's astromech droid rolling around on the porch beeping happily.  
  
Poe glanced in the direction of the house, not letting go of Rey's hand. "C'mon."  
  
For the first time in longer than he could recall, he felt completely at ease as his father greeted them with more than a few tears. This. This was why they were doing this. Why they were still fighting, even after the actual fighting was done.  
  
In the coming days, Poe would have to keep his father from telling Rey too many stories of his childhood, Rey would be introduced to the Force tree, Finn would contact them with a positive report on the First Order database he'd been looking for and Rey and Poe would scout out the old Alliance base for their now-expanding operation. But for the moment, for the first time in a long time, with two of the three people (and one droid) he cared about most here, he was home, in the house that built him…  
  
The doubts he’d had were still there, the things that had led him to that bar on Corellia in the first place. But they weren’t as daunting anymore. He wasn’t alone in that and this – being at the farm, with his loved ones – he didn’t have to be anyone but himself to do this. To work towards the future his Sunshine had reminded him he wanted.


End file.
